NEC/Alienware Curved Display Now Available

Remember that curved display we’ve briefly covered in the past? If you want one, it’s now available…and good news – it’s cheaper than ever! As it turns out, the NEC and Alienware versions we’ve seen in the past have actually just been rebrands of the company who actually produced the monitor’s tech – Ostendo. The company is aptly named; Ostendo is Latin for exhibit or display, and the CRVD is certainly a striking display.

The CRVD offers users a 43-inch curved display that reportedly fills up to 75% of your peripheral vision—making, unsurprisingly, for a pretty immersive environment. What that environment is–be it gaming, stock trading or medical scans–is up to you. The resolution is 2880×900, which works out to an aspect ratio of 32:10, twice as wide as current standards. CRVD uses a combination of DLP projection and LED backlighting, which means that there’s no worry about bulbs burning out. Unfortunately, it does suffer a few drawbacks as a result of this system; for one, it’s fifteen inches thick at its widest point. Additionally, unlike even 30-inch LED monitors we see today, the CRVD uses a whopping 200 watts of electricity while it’s in operation.

Of course, you get a number of benefits from all of this tech. Response time is rated at 0.02ms, it covers 100% of the sRGB gamut and 99.3% of the AdobeRGB gamut. It’s equivalent to a 12-bit LCD and capable of producing on the order of 68 billion colors with a 10000:1 contrast ratio and 200 nits of brightness.

We mentioned earlier that the display was cheaper than ever. And it is! Of course, cheaper than ever still doesn’t mean cheap. NEC showed this display off at Macworld 2009 and gave it a list price of $7999. Pretty high. Ostendo is making them available directly for a good bit cheaper…but still at $6499. If you’re that interested in acquiring one, be sure to hit up their site, where you can submit an order directly. While this tech has a long time before it reaches mainstream affordability, if it ever does, the simple fact that it exists is cool enough on its own.